Thefight between two government agencies, FIRS and NIPOST is far from over. Inresponse to claims made by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Nigerian
Postal Service on Sunday said its stamp duty account was opened by the CentralBank of Nigeria under the Treasury Single Account.The FIRS had claimed in a series of tweets lastweek that NIPOST operated an illegal Stamp Duty Account.
It also vowed to ensure that all monies in the account were recovered andtransferred into the Federation Account, adding that NIPOST must account forevery kobo in the account.
“We hereby state categorically that the statementis false and made to misinform and mislead members of the public,” the postalagency said in a statement issued on Sunday by its General Manager, CorporateCommunications, Frank Alao.
In the statement titled ‘NIPOST stamp dutyaccount was opened by CBN’, the postal agency said the account in question wasopened in consultation with the Office of Accountant-General of the Federation.
It said the name of the account was NIPOST StampDuties Collection Account, adding that the CBN gave instruction to DepositMoney Banks to commence the deduction of N50 stamp duties from bank customersaccounts at the time.
“The account belongs to the federation and NIPOSTdoes not have access to whatsoever monies lodged into the account. As such, thequestion of illegality and misappropriation does not arise,” the postalorganisation said.
It added, “NIPOST wishes to reiterate that underthe extant laws of Nigeria to wit NIPOST Act 2004 provides and vests solely inNIPOST the power to print adhesive postage stamps, which is the instrument fordenoting documents and other transaction instruments in compliance with theprovisions of the Stamp Duties Act.”
It argued that historically, the post in Nigeria,just like in other nations, had at different times produced adhesive postagestamps and revenue stamps for the Federal Government.
The agency said it was to this end that NIPOSTsought the proper implementation of the Finance Act.
It said, “NIPOST is therefore taken aback when FIRS took to Twitter to call outthe Chairman, NIPOST Board, Maimuna Abubakar, who only tried to bring theattention of the service and the public that NIPOST would be emasculated if theAct is not properly implemented.
“This is more so when there was a meeting betweenFIRS and NIPOST in July 2013 in the office of the Executive Chairman of FIRSand resolution reached that ‘NIPOST is statutory duty bound to provide the
stamps to be used by FIRS at both federal and state levels.’”